Internal-combustion engine



March 9 1926. 1,576,392

H. D. WILLIAMS INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed Oct. 5. 1920 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TOR.

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M 4 ATTORNEYS.

March 9 1929. 1,576,392

H. D. WILLIAMS INTERNAL COMBUST I ON ENGINE Filed om. 5. 1920 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR,

4Q ATTORNEY'.

H. D. WILLIAMS INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed Oct. 5, 1920 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR A TTORNEYS.

March 9 1926.

H. D. WILLIAMS INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE 4 Sheets- Sheet 4 Filed Oct. 5. 1920 mum . 'INVENTOR. lY M ATTORNEYS.

Patented Mar. 9, 1926.

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INTERNAL-COMBUSTION .ENGINIE.

Application filed Getober 5,. 1,320.. Serial No- 4,725;

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY D. Trunks-rs, t, citizen of the United States, and a resident of Pittsburgh, in, the county or Alle gheny and State of Pennsylvania, have in vented a new and useful Improvement inln- .ternal C ombusti'on Engines, 0-1: which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to internal combustion engines. More particularly it relates to rotary engines, andmore specifically yet it relates to, rotary engines in; which. not only the cylinders revolve, but also a member which is rotated thereby. V V

The objects of. the invention are to pro vide; a rotary internal combustion engine in which a plurality of cylinders are. so mounted that they drive a rotary member to. which their pistons are connected, the cylinder,

member following the driven member with the same speed of rotation. The cylinders are tangentially disposed" with, relation to the central shaft carr m them... The invention also includes special i nition, valve and lubricating means for internal combustion enginesotthis. class.

n. the accompanying drawings a simplilied engine, construction embodying the gen.- eral principles which constitute this invention is illustrated. Certain details, such as the lubrication system, the ignition system, and the. valves are shown in a. form-that is largely diagrammatic, it being intended} to illustrate an operative engine, but it being understood that many refinements and details are omitted, for the purpose of presenting the essentials of the invention in the simplest possible form.

Referring to; the drawings, Fig. 1 an end elevation, partial section, and in general a diagrammatic view of the engine cylinders, and the spider, or fly wheel driven thereby; Fig. a partial vertical section and elevation at right angles to: e ViQW shown in Fig. 1, with certain details. mi ted.

This view shows the lubrication system for the engine; Fig. 3 a vertical section through the gear box, taken on the line 'IIIIH, of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is-a central vertical section through, the cylinder block, showing the arrangement of valves for the cylinders; Fig. 5 is a vertical section through a special cam arrangement for operating the valves; this view being a section on the line V V of Fig. 6; Fig, 5- shows the upper part of the cam arrangement oi? Fig. :3, the

guides being in a different position; Fig. 6 is a partial side eievation showing the cam member; Fig, 7 is apartial'end view of the cylinder block showing diagraimnatically part 01 the ignition wiring, Fig. 8* is a: par

tial side elevation atright angles to that of Fig. 7', showing diagrammatically the wiring of the ignition system and Fig.,,9 is a diagrammatic view oi the timer'devico for the ignition system... i

,l-Ieretoi'ore rotary explosiveengines have been made having a plurality of cylinders, which when the. engine is operated rotate about a shaft to which the pi'stons of the cylinders are eccentrically connected bya crank the rotation of the cylinders being produced by the pistons pushing against the stationary crank 1 Fig. 1 shows the necessary elements of the present invention, without details. A plurality of cylinders, as for example cylind ers 1, 2, 3, illustrated, are shown cast en bloc, and are disposed on the three sides of an equilateral triangle, the middle pointof the block being: keyed upon a shaft 400,. It will be understood that Fig.1 is diagrammatic merely, and that the. valves and ports and intake manifold which are enclosed inside the triangular part of the cyl inder block are not shown, for the purpose of clearness in illustrating the essential fea tures of the invention. 1

The cylinders, 1",; 2', 3, enclose the ordinary pistons 4', having annular oil grooves 5-and hollow connecting pins 6, these, pins being connected by ordinary piston rods 7, to the circular rim of the wheel, or spider 8. The fly wheel has three or more spokes 9 and: a hub 9, and is keyed at its central point on a shaft 10'. 'The cylinders are air cooled and therefore carry exterior fins 12.

The shafts 10; and 400 whi'ch are parallel but eccentric are. carried in stationary bearings, and are extended laterally, the or; tended ends being shown in Fig. 9/ of a smaller diameter than the main parts of the shafts, and overlap, in a gear box 15, more fully described below, illNl'il'lllSiSlfitGd in Fig. 3'. Keyed on the end of shattlO is a gear wheel 16, and on the end of shat't400 is a gear wheel 17, while ani-ntermed-iate gear 18 is keyed upon a gear shaft 19-, as illustrated in Fi '3. are of the saine'size. and the gears 17 and 16 mesh with the gear 1S, so that'the shafts 10.

The gears 16, 17;, and 18' and 4.00. are positively connected, so that they can only turnin the same direction, and at the same speed.

Returning to Fig. 1, since the cylinder block is mounted on and keyed to the shaft 400 and the fly wheel 8 is mounted on and keyed to the shaft 10 it is obvious that when one is rotated about the axis of its shaft the other is also made to rotate about the axis of its respective shaft.v And since they rotate synchronously, it is obvious that when the cylinder 1 has been turned'one-third of a revolution to the position of cylinder 2 and two-thirds of a revolution to the position of ing movement of the pistons within the cylinders is produced, the piston being furthest out in the cylinderwhen the cylin der is exactly opposite the positionof cylinder 1, Fig. 1. Vice versa when a pressure, as of exploded gases in the cylinder, is exerted on the piston, driving it outward in the cylinder the Whole mechanism is made to rotate.

It will be understood that I may usemore than three cylinders, either by casting a greater number en bloc, oras separate units to form a block, or by duplicating the number of these blocks upon the same shaft.

Or I could employ othermeans for making the cylinder block revolve synchronous .ly with the fly wheel as for instance, a

separate shaft below with spur gears and chain drive. y i

The above description is the essential part of -my invention. That is, the provision of a rotary engine comprising a rotary cylinder block, either cast en blocor with separate cylinders, a rotary driven member con- Iiect-ing to the pistons in the engine cylinders, the rotary driven member being keyed upon a shaft which is connected through an intermediate gearto the shaft upon which the cylinder block is keyed, so that the cylinder blocks constantly follow the driven member, the shafts being parallel but eccentric.

-Having thus described'the essential parts of my invention I will now proceed to describe certaindetails, necessary to make an operative device embodying the general principles above set forth.

' An arrangement of valves which may be used for controlling the fuel supply of the engine is illustrated in Fig. 4, and in Figs. 5 and 6, the means for controlling these valves isshown. The intake is through the bore 31 in shaft 400 from some suitable type of ordinary carburetor. I I11 Fig. 4 the cylinders are in the same position as shown in Fig. 1, with the valves and connections in proper working relation to the engine when it is in the position illustrated. Cylinder 1 is in practically the position for explosion. A charge of fuel has been compressed in that cylinder, and its combustion drives the piston a throughout the length of the cylinder, somewhat further outthan the position illustrated by the piston 4: in cylinder 2,'of this figure. Thereafter as the cylinderl passes onaround to the position occupied bythe cylinder 3 of this figure, the piston Will have commenced its return stroke, or scavenging stroke, driving out the spent gases. hen it gets around to. its original position illustrated by the cylinder 1, in this figure, it will have driven out the spent gases, and the piston will then'draw in a fresh charge of fuel,this intake being mostly completed when the piston reaches the position occupied by cylinder 2, which will then have started to compress when the piston passes to the position here occupied by cylinder 3, and when reaching the original position occupied by cylinder 1 in this figure, the charge will have been compressed,fand will be rear y for another explosion. 'Thereupon the cycle above statedjwill be repeated. As is obviousfrom this description the arrangement shown il lustra-tes a four-cycle engine in which each cylinder explodes at every other revolution of the cylinder block about its axis.

Each cylinder operates in a cycle similar to that above described for cylinder 1 and fires when in a position corresponding to top dead center in an ordinary crank-shaft motor, and each cylinder explodes approxi mately as it reaches this position on every other revolution. I

Each cylinder has a single combined inlet and exhaust port 25. These passageslead to cylindrical valve chambers 26, which have ports 27 leading to exhaust passages 28, which open out to the atmosphere. The chambers 26 also have ports 29, which open into a fuel intake manifold 30, which surrounds the hollow shaft 100, the manifold chamber 30 being connected to the central bore 31 ofthe shaft 4 by a plurality of ports 82, all as clearly illustrated in Fig. 4-. Inthe description just above referred to the elements 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29 are in each instance given suflixes a, b, and c, respectively, denoting the cylinders 1, 2, and v3, and this system is followed throughout in referring to parts which are common to the three cylinders.

The cylindrical chambers 26 are con trolled by rotary valves 35 which are adapted to oscillate in the arrangement power stroke. After the power strolte, when the cylinder which has. just exploded has passed to the position illustrated by cylinder 3, the valve 35* will have been turned to the position shown at the right of Fig. l, in connection with cylinder 3. That is, valve 35 will have been turned to the position illustrated by the valve 3 5', thus opening the passage tlrrouglr the valve chamber 26, port 27, and out to the exhaust 28, so that the gases may be exhausted by the scavenging or return stroke of the piston.

Then when the cylinder has passed through the scavenging, stroke, as illustrated at the upper right ofthe figure, and partially completed its intake stroke, itwill have come to the position illiistrated the bottom 01" the'tigure by cylinder marked 9/. lin thisposition the valve will have turned to the position illustrated at the lower lefthand corner, freeing the ports 25" and 529 so that a charge o'f' fiuel' is drawn from the manifold: 30, into the explosive chamber. Before the next stroke the valve 35" will li'ave turned to. the positionillustrated by 35 at the upper left of the figure, closing the port 25", so that on the next stroke the explosive charge will be compressed', thus bringing the cylinder back to the position shown by cylinder 1, in the drawings, and read-y'for another explosion.

This arrangement of valves and its opera-v tion will be apparent to those familiar with the art. Q

The rotation of the valves 35 is efiected through a cam arrangement illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6. This comprises a earn plate 40 mounted on the shaft 400, but not keyed on that shaft. Each of the valves 35 has a suitable extension as, the outer end of which is of non-circular form, In Fig. 6 the general arrangement of thecani member 40 and the extended valve stems i5 is illust'ated. Plowever, for the purpose otclearness only one of the valve stems isshown, but it will be understood that the arrangement is similar for each cylinder. lite-un ted on the extension of each valve is a crank arm t6, which carries at its end an outwardly extending. pin 4+7, upon which is mounted an idle-roller 48. These rollers a8 extend into grooves on the inner face ot' the cam member l0;

Referring to Fig. 5', which shows in section a view the inner face of" the cam 'ruernber L0, it will be observed that there is aried thereby revoltve about the axis oil the shaft 400 that the valve rollers 458 which extend" into the grooves ofthe cant member 410, will, in i ollewing' the pathof travel through said groove, partially rotate the valve shaft-45. The'valve grooves5t), 5t, and 53, so arranged that whenst he roller 48 of one of the valve levers 46 passes through the complete cycl'e otthe said grooves, the valve will have been turned into position to open the inlet during the charging stroke, close the-i nlet during the coinpression and explosion strokes, and close the inlet and openthe exhaust port during the scavenging stroke, thus securing the normal valve operation of a tour-cycle engine having only one inlet port to the 0 Referring to Fig. 5the travel or the rollers 48 in the cam grooves'is as tot lows: T he cylinder block is rotated clockwise with respect to the cain face as illustrated in Fig. 5'. Supposin rol le r of one of the valves is just enteringthe cam groove 50' at the top of that groove asillustrated in Fig. 5, the c li'nder, the val ve oil which is being"considered, will be just coini nenci its charging stroke,that is, t

7 he valve will he in the positionlllustrated in the lower corner of Flg 4, connecting the cylinder to the intake manifold 30", and permitting a charge of fuel to be drawn intothe cylinder during the outward travelot a piston therein. hitter approximately one-half the revolution, the valve roller will have passed through the groove- 50 and will" have some to the transition portion 5'4, which carries the roller outward, thus turning the valve to a new position, as the roll-er passesintothe cam groove In: passing tl irou gh the transition po-rti a 54, the valve is turned from the-position illustrated at the bottom of Fig. 4 to'the position illustrated at the top of that figure, closing the inlet and outlet ports, and trapping the explosive charge in the cylinder. The return stro of tlrc piston, which occurs while the v2, 've rol l er is passing around through the cam groove 52, compresses the exp osive' charge, and then while the roller is on around through the cam groove 51, which is at the same distance from the center of the. cam meniber, the charge in the cylinder is exploded, and the working stroke takes place while the roller is in the canr groove 51. At the end of this cani} groove the roller ei'iters the transition roove" 56' which carries it outi ward agail-i from groove 51 to groove 53, the valvebeing turned by this transition portion from closed position to the position shown at the rigl'itj of Fig; t. 'This opens the explosive chamber into the exhaust passage 28, and while the roller passes througl'i the cam groove 53 the, cylinder is scavenged.

A pair 0t guides 60 and are pivot;

nioi-rnted on the inner face of the earn-meni- 'rigidly mounted on a pin 62, which extends through the cam member, and has rigidly mounted on the exterior thereof a crank arm 63, which is connected by a, link 64 to a crank arm 65, which in turn is rigidly mounted on the exterior end of a pin 66,.

which extends to theinner face of the cam member and has fixed thereon the guide 'member 61.

This arrangement provides for returning the valve roller after it has completed-its passage through the cam groove 53,'tothe beginning of'the cycle, that is to the cam groove 50. This transition is caused by the fact that when a valve roller passing around the groove 53 strikes-the upper side of guide 60, and also the bounding wall 67 of the outer wall of the cam member, the guide 63 is driven downward, and this through the crank arms 63 and 65, and the link 6 1 throws the guide 61 upward'until it contacts with the outer wall 67, and thus guides the rollerdownward into the groove 50. Thereafter the cycle is completed as above outlined.

The ignition system for this engine is illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8. A suitable magneto 70 is mounted on the 'end of the engine shaft 400, and driven thereby. This magneto generates a current which is led by means of connecting post 71, wire 72, connectin post 73, and brush 74:, to a rotary contact member 75, whlch is mounted upon and driven by the extension of shaft 4 which alsodrives the 'magneto. Three contact members 76, 77, and 78 are mounted onthe periphery of the rotary member 7 5 andengage the end of the brush 74 consecutively, as will be obvious. The threecontact members 76, 77 and 78 are connected by wires v79, 80 and 81, respectively, to the spark plugs. One end of each wire is attached to its respective contact plate, and they ex tend through the bore in shaft 400, and are led out to spark plugs 82, 82 and 82 which are mounted in the cylinders 1, 2, and 8, respectively, in the ordinary manner. It will be understood that the brush 74 makes its contact with the members76, 77, and 78 at the proper time to furnish a connection from the magneto to the proper spark plug.

' The lubrication ofthe engine is efiected through an arrangement which is diagrammatically illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3.

The gear box 15, which is in ffect a closed casing, enclosing the gears; 16, 17 and 1S, merely rides loosely upon the shafts 10 and 400. By means of a port controlled by a tap 90,this gear box is partially or wholly filled with oil. A port 91 leads out of the side of the gear box, at a point near where the gears 17 and 18 mesh. This port is surrounded by a small cut out portion 92, in

the thickened wall of the gear case, and the rotating gears act as a pump to force the .oil into this space or chamber 92, and produce pressure therein, which forces oilout the port 91, and through the upward passage 93 into the passage 94 drilled in the main shaft 10, down the passage 95 drilled in the spider-arms 9, through the passage 96 drilled in the pin 20 to which the connecting rod 7 is attached. The passage 96 connects with the passage 97 drilled through the connecting rod 7, which extends to and connects with a passage 98 bored in the piston pin 60f the piston 4.: This passage 98 passes outward and opens into the circular groove 5 which extends around the piston, and the oil is forced around that groove, and back into passage 100, which connects with passage 101 drilledin the connecting rod 7, thence into the return passage 102 drilled in the member 20, thence up through the return passage'103 through the spider arm 9, thence through passage 104 drilled in the 20, also lubricate's the'piston pin6 at its bearing with the piston 1, and also lubricates the piston in its bearing with the interior of the engine cylinder.

The other bearings may be lubricated by any desired manner, not necessary to -il. lustrate.

I claim I 1. A- rotary engine comprising a rotatable member carrying a plurality of rigidly connected cylinders tangentially mounted in relation to said rotary member, a fly-wheel connected to the pistons of said cylinders, a shaft fixed to the rotatable cylinder member, a second shaft rigidly fixed to the flywheel at the center thereof, a chain of gears connecting the two shafts together so as to cause them to turn in the same direction at of the said flywheel, a gear fixed upon the second shaft, and an intermediate gear connecting the gears upon the first and second shafts whereby to rotate them in the same direction at the same speed.

3. A rotary engine comprisin an engine block having a plurality of cylinders tangentially arranged with respect to the axis of the block, means to supply to and ignite fuel in the said cylinders, pistons in said cylinders, a fly-wheel operatively connected to said pistons, a shaft carrying said flywheel, a shaft carrying said engine block, gears on said shafts, and an intermediate member connecting said shaft gears whereby to rotate the two shafts synchronously at the same speed.

4. A rotary engine comprising a block of cylinders mounted on a hollow shaft in tangential relation thereto, connections from the pistons of said engine unit to the periphery of a fly-wheel surrounding said engine unit, and connections between the shafts of the fly-wheel and the shaft of the engine, where by the engine unit is caused to follow the fly-wheel as it is driven by the engine.

5. A rotary engine comprising a shaft, a

fiy-wheel fixed thereon, a second shaft 20 mounted parallel to the fiy-wheel shaft and eccentric thereto, gears on the two shafts and an intermediate connecting gear, all the gears being of the same size, an engine block fixed on the second shaft, said engine block comprising a plurality of cylinders mounted in'tangential relation to their carrying shaft and having pistons connected to the periphery of said fly-wheel, the cylinders of the said engine unit being arranged to receive an explosion at the point where they are nearest to the periphery of the fly-wheel, and the gearing betweenthe two shafts being arranged to cause the engine unit to follow the fly-wheel at the same rate of revolution.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

HARRY D. WILLIAMS. 

